King Cobra slide slithers into Six Flags water park this summer

Six Flags

Six Flags

Brady MacDonaldLos Angeles Times Staff Writer

Imagine inner tubing down a water slide only to realize you've been riding along the back of a hissing 250-foot-long snake and are about to plunge into the gaping mouth of the fang-bearing and venom-spewing King Cobra.

The new racing slide debuting in early July at Six Flags Great Adventure's Hurricane Harbor in New Jersey sounds more like a terrifying psychotic nightmare than a fun-filled day at the water park.

With King Cobra installations already in place in Turkey and Russia, the new Hurricane Harbor water park attraction marks the United States debut of the snake-themed water slide.

Turkish-based Polin Waterparks designed the serpentine slide to look like a larger-than-life king cobra with red, black and white scales and the snake's distinctive hooded head.

The King Cobra racing slide begins with a pair of two-person inner tubes sitting side by side at the top of a 50-foot tower. After a simultaneous start, the inner tubes race down separate figure-eight paths through fog walls, hissing sounds and lighting effects.

For the finale, both inner tubes drop down a steep hill at 30 mph and back up a zero gravity wall toward the cobra's open mouth, water gushing from its fangs.

Six Flags Great Adventure will also add a 150-foot-tall Sky Screamer swing tower this summer, similar to rides recently installed at Six Flags St. Louis (Missouri) and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (California).